Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-02-03

when you're ready, major" quietly
remarked the subaltern. The major put
down his glass with sigh, and contin-
ued:
"Well, as l was saying before, it was
too horrible and CHASTITY to feel myself
alone, shut in by the dense underwood
alone with those six lifeless corpses.
With an effort I overcame MY feelings of
horror, and stepped forward to examine
the bodies. There was no blood upon
them, and at first / could find no trace
of any kind of violence. At last my eyes
fell upon what sent..a cold shudder through
my veins. I had often seen fellow Great
ures aye, hundreds of them elain in fair
fight an the battlefield, and had myself
knocked over many man as coolly as l
would PARTRIDGE among the stubble; put
to see those 10 en-, each with a livid swollen
circle round his neck, with staring eyes,
blackened lips and protruding tongue,
telling that he had been foully and
treacherously strangled, that was wide
ly different thing"
9Sure the major must have begun his
examination at their boots, since he
couldn't at first--" began the Irish
man, soto voice, but was checked by a
sudden glance shot at him from the keen
eyes of the major, who repeated slowly
and with a visible shudder. of whose
genuineness there could surely be no
question:
"Ah! that was very different thin g.
and an icy sweat broke out on my fore
head, as, hastily retracing my steps,
hurried back to camp. When I got with
twenty yards of the edge of the wood I
saw, not a dozen yards away, native
standing by tree with his back toward
me. He was in full view from where I
stood, but perfectly hidden from any
one in the open space between the camp
and the wood.
''He had his rife up to his shoulder, land
was taking careful aim at something or
somebody. The thought flashed like
lightning a-ross my mind-sThe villa n !!
It's the colonel he's aiming at My reso-
luton was % ade instantaneously. If he
heard me cock my revolver, then, before
l could shoot him down, he might fire,
without waiting to take better aim at his
mark.
"My hand instinctively frightened it S
grip of my revolver as 1 leaped noiseless-
ly with few cat-like bounds across the
intervening space, and before the fellow
had time to turn around Ihad felled him
to the earth. His skull was smashed in,
and he died wit hout uttering cry or a
groan.
"The next moment the colonel sprang
forward into open-he had been hidden
before by large tree that came between
US. There he stood still gazing into the
wood at my left. He had evidently heard
the sound of the blow slight es it was,
but was not sure of the direction from
which it had proceeded. His left side
was turned almost full towards me, his
hand shaded his eyes.
GAS he gazed intently into the wood I
heard, faint, yet distinct, sharp click to
my right. turned my head in that di-
rection and there-my sight was unusual
ly quick and keen in those days-I saw
the rusty, discolored muzzle of gun pro-
jecting from the far side of large
tree, and pointing in the direction of the
colonel.
"The man that held it was completely
hidden from me by the tree. What could
do?
Was I to stand there impotent as a
baby to avert the danger, and see my col
onel shot down like dog?
ga shout of warning would have been
worse than useless: it would simply have
fastened the fatal catastrophe. 1 could
not fire because he was com pletely out of
sign-there was no part of him to be
seen. Even had there been, it would have
availed me nothing unless l could have
killed him instantaneously. A bullet
in the leg would probably have not made
him vince Or alter his aim by hairs
breadth, for the fellows were either regu-
lar stoicks or utterly insensible to pain.
On rr1oo hoI 70 chn
did 1 mention that my eyes were most
extraordinarily good telescope and mi
croscope combined, they used to say
that that aim was directed at the motion
less colonel's left temple.
ga moments reflection decided me-
there was but one chance left; desperate
one, but still it was a chance.
Il grasped my revolver firmly in my
hand, despatched as it was with blood
and brains; then without cooking it, for
l knew that the faintest sound made by
me at this juncture would be the colonePs
death signal. L took steady aim at a point
about yard from his head, in the line
l knew the bullet must take from the
rifle of the native to his temple. I might
have aimed at the muzzle of his rifle had
not known that the moment the click
of my revolver was heard the death
dealing bullet would be on its way. When
think of that moment of agOnizing
susfens my words seem to stick in my
throat"
Again the hint was taken, and the ir-
reverent young Irishman winked at
friend as he thought to himself: Grams
do stick in ones throat sometimes, and
it takes lot of washing to swallow them
down.
"These things take time in the telling,
but, by lingo! they took literally no time
in the doing. Pom my honor. could
hardly expect you to believe the end of
my story, but that you know, like myself,
that truth is stran ger than fiction.
swell, I took steady aim at the spot
that I knew the bullet must pass, and
fixed it as immovable as if the muscles
of my arm had been blacksmith's vice,
so that, when the moment came, might
fire without looking at it again. Then,
with my eyes fixed on the muzzle of the
rifle, I watched it-not second had
elapsed since I heard it cocked-then
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